MV Arctic Sea Conspiracy Deepens
Well, we all know the missing Russian cargo ship MV Arctic Sea has been discovered safe and sound. Rather than putting to rest many questions, the discovery has only deepened the mystery of her true whereabouts. Was she hijacked, not once but twice? And what was the Russian government’s own complicity in this? A recent statement by Moscow’s NATO envoy adds fuel to the theory placed by yours truly that the apparent disappearance coincided with ongoing naval operations, including the presence of 2 Akula class subs off the North American East Coast. The Associated Press gives details:
Adding to the mystery, Russia’s envoy to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, told the ITAR-Tass news agency yesterday that bogus information was deliberately provided to the news media “which did not allow them to calculate the true actions of the Russian forces.”
US military forces were understandably boastful of easily tracking the noisy nuclear boats, as we often did during the Cold War. Not so easy to find was a rogue freighter which could have been carrying weapons of mass destruction if this was a war situation. The impressive victory of our anti-submarine forces might have been a distraction while the Russians deceived us with an elaborate asymmetrical ruse. It looks like, for a few weeks at least, they pulled it off.
West maybe the ship was trying to defect!
Yulia Latynina’s article at The Moscow Times.com. It does make for interesting conspiracy thoughts.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/article/1016/42/380923.htm
It continues in getting more and more interesting. This is from the New York Times:
The Arctic Sea was also on its way back to Russia, sailing with a replacement crew, the authorities said.
The official version of events was questioned by Yulia Latynina, a leading Russian opposition journalist and commentator.
“The Arctic Sea was carrying something, not timber and not from Finland, that necessitated some major work on the ship,” she wrote in the Moscow Times newspaper on Wednesday.
During two weeks of repair works in the Russian port of Kaliningrad just before the voyage, the ship’s bulkhead was dismantled so something very large could be loaded, she wrote.
“To put it plainly: The Arctic Sea was carrying some sort of anti-aircraft or nuclear contraption intended for a nice, peaceful country like Syria, and they were caught with it,” she said.
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2009/08/19/world/international-us-ship-russia.html
Mike, anybody that is worth a flip on opsec, like wise old owl, sees all, hears all, says nothing, maybe plays disinformation, “operations noir”, no?
Here is a link to a Timeline of events.
harrisloeser- I normally shy away from conspiracies as well, but this story was too good, and i saw almost no one pondering the connection with the Akula’s off the East Coast.
I hate to contribute to conspiracy theories, but note that the Arctic Sea is a relatively small oceangoing ship with full self-loading unloading capabilities. This means that multi-ton items can be transshipped to any fishing vessel as long as the water is relatively calm.
Think the piracy story may have just been pretext to get them on a Maltese flag vessel.
Four Estonians, two Latvians, and two Russians are said to have been taken into custody as the hijackers of the Arctic Sea.
Mayhaps this will provide a ‘causus belli’ for another Georgia-like action by the Russians. Perhaps they want back some of Estonia and / or Latvia. I do wonder why no Lithuanians were ‘found’ amongst the hijackers.
Given the news reports indicating how NATO assisted the Russians in tracking the ship over the last several days, then it would interesting to see the Russians having a go at taking over a NATO member on such a pretense of ex-Soviet nationals being involved in the hijacking.
Hudson said “the mystery ship came nowhere close to US coastal waters”
No one is saying this, but it was right in the midst of NATO shipping lanes.
Chuck and West, I absolutely think there is more to this story. Maybe even the Western officials aren’t saying what they know in order to keep things civil.
Blaming Ukranians and Georgians for subversive activity and high seas piracy. I’d speculate that physics packages and opium delivered far more discreetly via Fidel and Hugo puppets on official port calls.
Politicallly incorrect would expect Sec State and POTUS to be kept in states of plausible deniability, though VPOTUS covert meeting with rubber rafts “while in Kiawah” makes nice techno thriller fiction.
ask me no questions, I might not have to tell you any (true) lies.
Actually, if there had not been this report of piracy, no one would have been paying attention. Do think there is more to the story.
According to my reading, the mystery ship came nowhere close to US coastal waters. If it had, the Navy or Coast Guard would have been all over it far out to sea.
My wild guess is that the ship was carrying fissile material with a Russian mob connection. We may never know for sure unless someone on the inside talks.